Been thinking about moving from Sky to Virgin. I've stuck with Sky until now as their HD content was much better but now that Virgin have nearly caught up with that (plus have BT sports included) and their broadband is much faster I'm thinking Virgin would be the better option. So just wondering if there's any Virgin users out there (no jokes please) that can tell me if their service is reliable or not. Are the Tivo boxes as good as the Sky+ boxes? Is their broadband really as fast as they say? The good thing about changing is as a new customer I'll get all brand new equipment (one of my sky boxes is at deaths door) plus my monthly bill for the first year is £20 cheaper than sky equivalent (and still £5 cheaper after the 1st year)...so just need to know if Virgin have a good service.
As a user of both media,I can give good shouts for both services. When I moved to Torquay the home I had only had a one feed for sky,so this took away the ability for Sky+ and being in communal property this adjustment was not available,so I joined Virgin. I had the ability to watch and record two others and I also managed to recieve 30 meg in broadband speed,If you watch a lot of films and gaming then Virgin Media is very good service. In my 4 years and 3 months in Torquay I never lost service often either. I think Sky & Virgin Media are very good.
Virgin do a season ticket deal at the mo, pay £150 up front and get sports for ten months, works out around half price I think
Yeah the service is ok, the speeds are consistent as well, their hardware I gives great picture quality but can be a bit 'sticky' to respond to the remote at certain times of the day I've noticed. Same issue on several boxes. I think Sky for TV Junkie's, Virgin for Internet junkies with BT Sports as a bonus. Call centres are based all over the world though and the standard there does vary. Scotland's is very good.
For sport... Oliver Roberts-Holmes, of switching website SimplifyDigital, warns sports fans: ‘It’s quite a messy market and Sky Sports doesn’t usually come with a discount. ‘But Virgin Media is doing something quite interesting. It’s selling ten months of sport for an upfront payment of £150 as opposed to £27.25 a month. If you want sports viewing for the whole football season you might as well pay upfront if you can.’ The cheapest offer overall that includes the ten-month ‘Season Ticket’ is nearly £582 for the first year with Virgin Media’s ‘Big Bang’ deal, including line rental, more than 130 channels, superfast broadband and weekend landline calls. BT Sport can be watched for free on smartphones and laptops using the dedicated app or online player service if a customer buys any broadband deal. The cheapest BT broadband deal is nearly £257 for the first year, including landline calls at weekends, upfront line rental of £160 for the year and £6.95 equipment costs. Internet usage is capped at ten gigabytes per month, not including BT Sport usage. But this doesn’t give access to all the Sky Sports channels and will only show 38 out of 154 televised Premier League football matches for the coming season. For commitment free sports viewing there is Now TV. It costs £9.99 to buy the small box, which plugs into the back of your TV and connects to your internet via wifi. You can then buy an entertainment, film or Sky Sports pass. The latter starts at £9.99 for a one-day pass, rising to £34.99 for five one-day passes. IF YOU NEED THE INTERNET TO VIEW, MAKE SURE IT'S QUICK Any streaming service such as Netflix, Blinkbox or Prime Instant Video, or set-top boxes like Now TV and Apple TV, will rely on a slick, quick internet connection. Oliver Roberts-Holmes, from comparison website SimplifyDigital, says: ‘You need speed if your broadband is being worked all the time.’ He recommends at least two megabits per second – the measure of internet speed – but says most households will need more. Internet providers sell basic broadband at speeds up to 17Mbps but depending on postcode it can be far slower than this. Roberts-Holmes adds: ‘If more than one person is going to be using the internet, then increase the speed requirement.’ Superfast internet – delivered on fibre-optic cables – should give lightning quick speed, but comes at a price. Among the cheapest is TalkTalk’s Simply Fibre Broadband Medium with speeds of up to 38Mbps. It costs £383 for the first year, including line rental and a £30 activation fee, but does not include the cost of landline calls. Matt and Joanna Stopp chose superfast broadband with BT Infinity when they moved to a new home in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, earlier this year. The couple, who have a two-year-old daughter Robynne, and are expecting their second child, pay £23 a month not including line rental, but say the internet speed is well worth the price. They previously lived in an internet ‘slow spot’ in a Victorian flat where they only had a speed of less than 1Mbps. When they moved, they researched faster internet deals with help from Ofcom-approved comparison website Broadbandchoices. Matt, 36, who works for an internet and media business, and Joanna, 33, a psychotherapist, enjoy watching football and fantasy series Game Of Thrones on their Sky TV deal. But they also enjoy streaming shows via the internet with Sky On Demand, which relies on a broadband connection. Matt says: ‘The internet speed we have now is so much better, it was a really good change to make.’ Broadbandchoices also has a range of free and helpful guides on its website, including ways to boost your internet speed at home – without having to change deals. SimplifyDigital’s experts can make a personal recommendation according to your needs. Visit its website or call 0800 542 4704. Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/...iew-Netflix-guide-best-box.html#ixzz39Mfp12dn Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
It's all about your individual requirements. I call relatives in Paris and Virgin don't seem to offer 'free' international calls. I prefer TV to surfing / downloading so Sky is good for me. I did get fed up with the WiFi just this w/e and a friend recommended 'WiFi Analyser' from Play Store which helped me switch the router channel resulting in 25% increase in speed. Result. Having said that I may switch to Virgin just to stop the marketing mail through the door. Seems once a week!
I've had sky pretty much since they started. The customer service is absolutely without doubt, the worst I have ever come across. The problems I have had, have been quite breath-takingly unbelievable I only ever stayed because of the sports, now there is realistic competition, it is only a matter of time, before I switch to Virgin.
Having had both, I'd say they are both crap. I have now been with Virgin for about 15 years and frankly, the only reason I haven't binned it is because it's easier to put up with the **** 'customer service' than to change to another supplier. The Tivo box was bought as an 'off the shelf' option by Virgin when it was being sold off in America and is crap. You cannot set it to automatically switch channels like the V+ box unless you want to record that channel too. The remote is crap as well. Customer servvice is useless unless you are fluent in Urdu, Phillippino etc, as believe me, none of them can speak a word of English!! Overall, 0/100
I used to have cable in the pre-Virgin days, and whilst that meant I was always talking to someone fairly local when I needed to, the restrictions on only being able to view what they chose to push down the line was painful. I switched to Sky around 13 years ago, and the increase in TV choice was brilliant. Still with Sky, and whilst I can't switch because Virgin haven't laid the cables at my house yet, I doubt I would change.
I was not impressed with Virgin, may have just been my area that had problems, but they had broadband out for repairs on a regular basis, never told or warned you, only found out when i phoned customer service, also had poor signal, net flix ect always buffering, but like i say may have been unlucky !
i've had Virgin Media since sky nicked the Ryder Cup off the bbc, never really had a problem, fast broadband and pay a couple of quid a month for international calls, also just got a good deal on a new iphone.
I had Sky til I moved house last year and never really had any problems, except for their prices. Had to move to Virgin as I have no line-of-sight to the satellite (have a big hill at rear of house) and not really impressed with their TV package or the TiVo box (it's unresponsive, sluggish and nowhere near as slick as my old Sky+ box), but the internet is stable and fast. I'm awaiting delivery of an XBMC android box, and will be cancelling all sports and movie packages once that turns up, and will probably increase my broadband speed so the streaming is of good quality - as said above, up to you whether you prefer decent TV or good internet....
Thanks for all the replies. Haven't been online since I posted the question so couldn't reply quicker. I've stuck with Sky for years as since I have a HD tv I didn't want a supplier that only had a few HD channels compared to Skys. But Virgin have just about caught up with Sky now in HD channels...only Sky sports news, Sky news, CI and History would be missing (of those that are watched in our house). My other half complains that the broadband feels slow even though we have Skys fibre optic (up to 40mb) so Virgins 156mb should ease my ears. So it's all about reliability and how good the service is that would determine if it was worth swapping. Sky have been OK, can't really complain apart from a box that would freeze on occasions and the weather losing signal. So if Virgin could match having an OK service (and the Tivo box was as reliable as the Sky+ one) I think it'd be worth moving over. At least my monthly bill will go down as a new customer (Sky have just made a £4 bill increase) and my equipment would be brand new.
